Here it is – a collection of my favourite Back-to-School literature. Some are new, others are older classics. Please feel free to share your discovered gems in the Reply box below. I will continue to update this list, so please come back and check again (because we can never have too many).
The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten
Maureen Fergus
Kids Can Press
A kindergartener invites her mom to class and discovers there are some things kids are better at than parents. This book makes a perfect gift for readers who are about to start or have recently started school.
Llama Llama Misses Mama (Llama Llama)
Anna Dewdney
Viking Juvenile
Strange new teacher.
Strange new toys.
Lots of kids and lots of noise!
What would Llama like to do?
Llama Llama feels so new . . .
It’s Llama Llama’s first day of preschool! And Llama Llama’s mama makes sure he’s ready. They meet the teachers. See the other children. Look at all the books and games. But then it’s time for Mama to leave. And suddenly Llama Llama isn’t so excited anymore. Will Mama Llama come back?
Of course she will. But before she does, the other children show Llama Llama how much fun school can be!
templates so that each student has one with their name written on the back (you may want to invite students who are able to write their name independently, to do so prior to beginning). Place all the cookies in a jar and with all the students sitting in a circle, introduce the song, 
The jar can then be put to further use by placing it somewhere in the room for students to access during Centre/Play time. Depending on the various skills you introduced with the activity, students may want to explore some of them independently or in a small group (i.e., counting, sorting, etc.).
As an extension to the poem, Please Stay Awhile, I prepared an initial portfolio assignment. Toward the end of the first week of school, students will be invited (in small groups) to sketch a picture of themselves and write their name. Please note that this is not an assessment piece. It merely gives me an indication of where my students are at – a point of reference for each child’s starting point. It is also a great way for me to see what my returning SK students retained from the previous year. Perhaps the best use of this task is that it allows me to plan my program in a way to address whole-group as well as individual needs. Feel free to download a copy of the template by clicking on the image below.
I ate my dinner but I was mad.
m I wrote, along with a craft I created and will be using with my Kindergarten students this
a dress-shirt template, 3 tie templates (one with stripes that students can colour in a pattern, one with polka dots, and another for students to draw their own design). The shirt template is best photocopied on light construction paper, and the tie on white paper. Once the tie is cut out, have students glue the top of the tie onto the neckline of the shirt. When the tie is lifted, it will reveal the poem, My Hero, beneath.
(to create shoulders), and the rest of the shirt can be decorated in any way the students choose (polka-dots, stripes, finger-paint splotches, etc.).
Words On A Limb 